The Assessment of the Operational Performance of a Dry Anaerobic Reactor of Cambuci Husks to Bioenergy Potential and Biorefinery Integration

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion plays a significant role in obtaining renewable energy through biogas production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, helping with waste management, and bringing economic and social benefits. This work aims to examine approaches for the treatment and use of cambuci bagasse, identifying typical problems and proposing solutions concerning the application of the technique, control of operational parameters, management in dry regime conditions, optimization of efficiency, and increased productivity, using anaerobic digestion as a fundamental and central technology. The results showed the potential of electric energy and heat that could be generated by burning the biomass in a CHP system. Also, they presented the respective avoided greenhouse gas emissions in situations where biogas is applied to replace conventional heat or electricity sources. The biogas average production ratio was 102.69 m³/ton of cambuci by-product with a methane composition of around 60% in the 24th to 30th days. The experimental data obtained was subjected to calculations that indicate an electric generation of 202.98 kWh/ton of cambuci biomass and heat generation of 913.40 MJ/ton of cambuci biomass. In this theoretical scenario, for each ton of cambuci, it is possible to produce 913.4 MJ of thermal energy and 202.98 kWh of electric energy, considering the biogas burning into a CHP system. In the analysis of types of substrates regarding growth capacity, it was concluded that the substrate with a 30% dilution of the digested end was the one that showed the best growth of the cultivar’s stem, obtaining a CEC of 9.1516 mol/g.

Graphical Abstract